Carrollian horrors

[Rainbownaga]

I was thinking to do campaign at least partially inspired by the ridiculous Hunting of the Snark. That said, i thought it would be appropriate and useful to actually have a Snark. Jub-jub birds and Bandersnatches (fulminous or otherwise) would be useful too, and finally, the Boojum variant of snark that can make you "softly and swiftly fade away".

Knowing how d&d i half expect many of these creatures have already been statted out a thousand times (I'm sure the jabberwock has) but it may be necessary to create them, hence the homebrew forum.

So, before i start getting stuck into brewing, has anyone already created one of these creations, or have any suggestions on building one?

[DracoDei]

"Softly and swiftly fade away" sounds to me like touch-range Disintegrate as a Supernatural or Spell-like ability, but without any green glowy energy involved. Or maybe even as per the original spell, but the ray is invisible. Perhaps a minor sound dampening effect with a duration of approximately 1 second coupled to it that muffles the sound of a destroyed victem's equipment falling to the ground...

[Asheram]

"To pursue it with forks and hope".

Just beware of boots, as well the Boojum.

[Rainbownaga]

Incidentally, does anyone know what a "railway share" actually is?

[MrEdwardNigma]

C'mon now, everyone knows the Snark was actually

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The Boots

You're going to want to stat a commoner with skill in shoeshining, I think.

EDIT: Also, I believe the word you were looking for was "frumious".

EDIT 2: Actually, the Hunting of the Snark may actually make for an interesting campaign... Is this a good idea?

[hamishspence]

I thought it was "softly and silently vanished away"

And that would be good- I recall Jabberwocks in Monstrous Compendium 2nd ed and kinda wish they had made it into 3rd ed.

[Rainbownaga]

Carroll boots? I had to google it to get the reference. I guess it's an American thing, right?

Given the general theme of the poem, that would actually fit right it. That would actually make an interesting twist... hmm...

As far as the Snark itself goes, i'm thinking a Bullette would be a useful base. A crazy burrowing monster that is hard to find. That and Snark keeps making me think of shark. Maybe i'll find something weaker, however, so i can template.

And i guess the trick with the fading away is to make it happen to an NPC and have them witness it from afar.

Any idea how to add a 'make fade away' power to a monster without playing havoc with the CR?

[MrEdwardNigma]

Rainbownaga, I'm not sure if you quite understood the reference.

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In the Hunting of the Snark a crew sets out to find the Snark. each of the crewmembers has a name beginning with a "B", for example the Beaver, the Butcher, the Barrister or the banker. One of these characters, notably the only one never to appear in the illustrations, is the Boots.

When the Baker finally finds what he believes is the Snark, he shouts out in fear "Oh, no, it's a Boo-!", getting cut off before he can finish his sentence. The crew assumes he was about so say "Boojum", but Carroll might have intended the Baker to say "Boots", the most mysterious character on board. Thusly, the Snark was actually the Boots, who murdered the Baker, possibly because the Baker wore three pairs of boots at once.

And yes, "Snark" may have been a portemanteau for Snail and Shark, with Snake sneaking in there somewhere.

This is one example of what a Snark may look like:

[Fri]

This is awesome. A horror setting based on alice in wonderland?Typical now. A horror styled hunting of the snark? Way awesome.

[hamishspence]

Dungeonland was an old favourite, way back. Its referenced in Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk. 3.5 adventure.

on Snarks- they come in at least 2 types, those that have feathers and bite, as well as those that have whiskers and scratch

[Debihuman]

EnWorld has a 3e conversion of "The Land Beyond the MagicMirror" which includes stats for the Jub-Jub Bird, Jaberwocky and Bandersntach. I don't believe I've seen stats for the Snark anywhere.

If anyone is interested, Project Gutenberg has the text poem available for reading online. Here's the beginning if anyone is unfamiliar with the piece:

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"Just the place for a Snark!" the Bellman cried,
As he landed his crew with care;
Supporting each man on the top of the tide
By a finger entwined in his hair.

"Just the place for a Snark! I have said it twice:
That alone should encourage the crew.
Just the place for a Snark! I have said it thrice:
What I tell you three times is true."

The crew was complete: it included a Boots--
A maker of Bonnets and Hoods--
A Barrister, brought to arrange their disputes--
And a Broker, to value their goods.

A Billiard-marker, whose skill was immense,
Might perhaps have won more than his share--
But a Banker, engaged at enormous expense,
Had the whole of their cash in his care.

There was also a Beaver, that paced on the deck,
Or would sit making lace in the bow:
And had often (the Bellman said) saved them from wreck,
Though none of the sailors knew how.

There was one who was famed for the number of things
He forgot when he entered the ship:
His umbrella, his watch, all his jewels and rings,
And the clothes he had bought for the trip.

He had forty-two boxes, all carefully packed,
With his name painted clearly on each:
But, since he omitted to mention the fact,
They were all left behind on the beach.

The loss of his clothes hardly mattered, because
He had seven coats on when he came,
With three pairs of boots--but the worst of it was,
He had wholly forgotten his name.

Here is the rtf file for the conversion of Dungeonland over on EnWorld's Website: http://www.enworld.org/cc/downloads/...ond_mirror.rtf

[Jair Barik]

Just checked my 2e folder (monstrous compendium 1 & 2) and couldn't find a jabberwocky. That said I found a couple of creatures that I'm interested in converting that I haven't seen in any of the books i have (Rot grubs, yellow musk, gas spore, water weird and Obliviax)

I say stick in a vorpal blade as a quest item.

[brujon]

Yellow Musk was converted to 3.5 or 3.0 but i cannot remember the supplement... I remember it being topic at the wizards optimization boards. The other ones i think didn't make it.

[Rainbownaga]

Rainbownaga, I'm not sure if you quite understood the reference.

Spoiler

Show

In the Hunting of the Snark a crew sets out to find the Snark. each of the crewmembers has a name beginning with a "B", for example the Beaver, the Butcher, the Barrister or the banker. One of these characters, notably the only one never to appear in the illustrations, is the Boots.

When the Baker finally finds what he believes is the Snark, he shouts out in fear "Oh, no, it's a Boo-!", getting cut off before he can finish his sentence. The crew assumes he was about so say "Boojum", but Carroll might have intended the Baker to say "Boots", the most mysterious character on board. Thusly, the Snark was actually the Boots, who murdered the Baker, possibly because the Baker wore three pairs of boots at once.

And yes, "Snark" may have been a portemanteau for Snail and Shark, with Snake sneaking in there somewhere.

Yeah, I completely missed that one, what with the Bellman, Butcher, Baker and Bever stealling all the action.



The snail/shark thing seems like a good idea, maybe we can make a few Snarks from scratch.


To demystify the snark, they are obviously attracted to shiny things, hence the usefulness of thimbles and forks, though there may be other reasons why these are useful.

"unpacking the things that you need to rig yourself out for the fight" could refer to some ability that blocks interspacial boundries i.e. if you left your vorpal sword in your handy haversack, you miss out.

And, inevitably, the idea is to capture the thing, not to kill it, and to do so with some kind of charm??

[MrEdwardNigma]

Well, actually, the plan was to do so unless it was a Boojum. Of course, since any other snark than a Boojum would actually be quite docile, it's probably in the DMs best interest to make this particular Snark a Boojum.

[Rainbownaga]

Just checked my 2e folder (monstrous compendium 1 & 2) and couldn't find a jabberwocky. That said I found a couple of creatures that I'm interested in converting that I haven't seen in any of the books i have (Rot grubs, yellow musk, gas spore, water weird and Obliviax)

I say stick in a vorpal blade as a quest item.

A snicker-snack weapon would definitely be useful.

I think the gas spore was in Lords of Madness

[Realms of Chaos]

Obliviax (the plant that makes you forget spells and such) appears in a dragon magazine (the one with the 7 exalted domains).

Rotgrubs and rotgrub swarms exist in dungeonscape

water weirds exist in the Monster Manual II (from 3rd edition) along with the other elemental wierds (and the wizards site has errata updating creatures from that book to 3.5 where neccesary).

Yellow Musk Creepers exist in the 3.0 Fiend Folio (Once again, official errata exists, though it doesn't change much, if anything).